Oregon Truffle Festival

written by Jen Stevenson | photos by Kathryn Elsesser

The holidays may be but a mulled-wine-muted memory, but Christmas is just beginning for Oregon truffle lovers, as a diverse group of local and international farmers, chefs, mycologists, vintners, dog trainers and the truffle-obsessed gather in Eugene and Yamhill Valley for winter’s much-anticipated annual Oregon Truffle Festival. Spanning two fungi-filled weekends in January and February, the fourteen-year-old festival is ripe (literally) with opportunities to celebrate and sample Oregon’s black and white gold.

Score tickets to the decadent six-course Grand Truffle Dinner featuring acclaimed Portland chefs Greg and Gabi Denton (Bistro Agnes, Ox) and Gregory Gourdet (Departure), learn about the latest advances in truffle science from the world’s leading experts during the two-day Truffle Growers’ Forum, follow along with professional four-legged foragers during an authentic Willamette Valley wine country truffle hunt before sitting down to a lavish luncheon, or sniff, sample and shop your way through the Fresh Truffle Marketplace. For more information and tickets, visit www.oregontrufflefestival.org